Hello kitty! A cat may be among ex-pope's perks

Many kitties roam Castel Gandolfo and Vatican City, just waiting for a known soft-touch to take them in.

Could Contessina, a cat that roams the gardens at Vatican City, be pontiff emeritus Benedict XVI's first post-papacy cat? He couldn't have one when he lived in the papal residence.(Photo: Filippo Monteforte, AFP/Getty Images)

Story Highlights

Benedict XVI, no-longer-pope, is resuming pleasures once crowded out of his stressful life: Reading, strolling in the gardens and playing the piano, according to the Vatican.

So, can the pontiff emeritus finally have a cat again? Maybe.

No pets were allowed in the papal residence in Vatican City. But there are kitties all over the enormous garden at the papal retreat, Castel Gandolfo. That's where Benedict is now ensconced for a few weeks until he can move to a residence being readied for him within Vatican City.

In the archives at Catholic University, there's a 1958 comic book calledThe Cat from Castelgandolfo in which a fictitious kitty hung out with Pope Pius XI. And undated Web images show some plump felines languishing on the garden walls.

The pope's brother, Rev. Georg Ratzinger, in his 2011 book, My Brother, the Pope, describes Joseph-who-became-Benedict as someone "very tenderhearted; he loves animals and flowers." Back in 1968, when Rev. Joseph Ratzinger was a theology professor in the Bavarian town of Tubingen, a neighbor's cat visited him daily.

"It even accompanied him to his lectures and to Mass. It was a black cat, a very intelligent pussycat," the older brother writes.

In 2005, Georg Ratzinger's housekeeper in Germany told MSNBC that the pope's personal cat, Chico, was under the care of the person who tends the pope's private residence there and another neighborhood cat visited Chico often.

So, if Georg wants to bring Chico along for a visit, there are two hotels in Castel Gandolfo that advertise they are "pet friendly."

Once Benedict returns to live at the Mater Ecclesiae (Mother of the Church) refurbished apartment inside the Vatican City State, there are countless cats already afoot that could cozy up to a known soft touch.